The president reviewed the bonding authority for new UK building projects in the approved budget, including $100 million for a new patient care facility, $24 million for a new student health facility, $40 million for a new biological pharmacy building, and $8.5 million for a new animal diagnostic building.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 9, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees today approved an honorary doctorate in science for a pioneer in aluminum production and recycling and granted four one-year research professorships.

The research professorships, worth $35,000 each, will enable four UK faculty members to pursue research in a more concentrated manner for one academic year.

The board approved the honorary degree for Stanley Platek, vice president of research and development for the Commonwealth Aluminum Corporation, who profoundly changed aluminum production in partnership with UK.

Platek invented a continuous-casting process that reduced energy consumption and emissions in aluminum production while producing a more durable and quality-controlled product. “Because of his innovations, more than 1.5 billion pounds of scrap aluminum are annually recycled into product components, including the first automotive-grade aluminum strip acceptable for commercial vehicles,” the board’s citation reads.

Platek, a 1960 graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, holds seven U.S. patents for his aluminum processing ideas. He will receive the honorary doctorate at UK’s Commencement Sunday, May 8.

Subodh K. Das, director of the UK Center for Aluminum and president and CEO of Secat Inc. on the UK Coldstream Research Campus, said Platek “has had a distinguished and innovative career which has influenced the worldwide aluminum industry and the UK research and educational missions.”

Daunert, who is the UK Gill Eminent Professor of Analytical and Biological Chemistry, is also the 2004-05 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor. She will deliver her Distinguished Professor Lecture, “Bionanotechnology: Learning from Nature,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, in the Recital Hall of the UK Singletary Center for the Arts. The Distinguished Arts and Sciences Lecture is free and open to the public.

The first annual UK research professors were named in the fall of 1977 as a way of recognizing outstanding research achievement by faculty.

Board Approves New Room and Board
Rates

The board also approved new room and board rates (PDF file) for students for the 2005-06 academic year, including rates for four new residence halls that are under construction and expected to be on-line for the fall semester 2005. The academic-year rates increased $278, or 9 percent, for existing residence hall housing. Academic-year housing rates alone for Greg Page Undergraduate Apartments will increase 9 percent , or $287.

For the first time, seven different dining programs will be offered to students instead of just one. The dining program is moving from a “cash declining balance plan” to an “unlimited choice plan.” In the new plan, students will be able to select whatever they want to eat as one “meal” rather than being charged separately for each food item. The minimum plan offers 123 unlimited choice meals for $883 each semester.

In the next school year, combined rates for the minimum dining plan plus housing in existing residence halls will be $5,129. Combined rates for the new residence halls with the same meal plan will be $6,016 for double suites and $8,031 for single suites.

The board also approved the establishment of a Cardiovascular Research Center in the UK College of Medicine as a center of excellence in basic, translational and clinical cardiovascular research.

UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. gave board members an overview of the new Kentucky budget and noted he was “very pleased it got passed.”

The president reviewed the bonding authority for new UK building projects in the approved budget, including $100 million for a new patient care facility, $24 million for a new student health facility, $40 million for a new biological pharmacy building, and $8.5 million for a new animal diagnostic building.

The president also said the new budget included $5.5 million in “restoration” of last year’s budget cuts.